Topics+of+Interest

=Topics of interest =

 Early life
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Jesse Oser House, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (1940)
===Louis Kahn, whose original name was Itze-Leib (Leiser-Itze) Schmuilowsky (Schmalowski), was born into a poor [|Jewish] family in [|Kuressaare] on the [|Estonian] island of [|Saaremaa], then part of the [|Russian Empire]. At age 3, he was badly burned on his face and hands in an accident involving a coal fire, while jumping over the bonfire on [|St John's Day][|[2]]; he carried these scars for the rest of his life.[|[3]] === ===In 1905, his family immigrated to the [|United States], fearing that his father would be recalled into the === ===military during the [|Russo-Japanese War]. His actual birth year may have been inaccurately recorded in the process of immigration. According to his son's documentary film in 2003[|[4]] the family couldn't afford pencils but made their own charcoal sticks from burnt twigs so that Louis could earn a little money from drawings and later by playing piano to accompany silent movies. He became a [|naturalized citizen] on May 15, 1914. His father changed their name in [|1915]. ===

 [[|edit]] Career
=== === === === ===The National Assembly Building (//[|Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban]//) of [|Bangladesh] === ===He trained in a rigorous [|Beaux-Arts tradition], with its emphasis on drawing, at the [|University of Pennsylvania]. After completing his [|Bachelor of Architecture] in 1924, Kahn worked as senior draftsman in the office of City Architect [|John Molitor]. In this capacity, he worked on the design for the [|1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition].[|[5]] === ===In 1928, Kahn made a European tour and took a particular interest in the medieval walled city of [|Carcassonne], [|France] and the castles of [|Scotland] rather than any of the strongholds of [|classicism] or [|modernism].[|[6]] After returning to the States in 1929, Kahn worked in [|the offices of Paul Philippe Cret], his former studio critic at [|Penn], and in the offices of [|Zantzinger, Borie and Medary] in [|Philadelphia].[|[5]] In 1932, Kahn and [|Dominique Berninger] founded the Architectural Research Group, whose members were interested in the [|populist] [|social agenda] and new [|aesthetics] of the [|European] [|avant-gardes]. Among the projects Kahn worked on during this collaboration are unbuilt schemes for public housing that had originally been presented to the [|Public Works Administration].[|[5]] === ===Among the more important of Kahn's early collaborations was with [|George Howe].[|[7]] Kahn worked with Howe in late 1930s on projects for the [|Philadelphia Housing Authority] and again in 1940, along with [|German] born architect [|Oscar Stonorov] for the design of housing developments in other parts of [|Pennsylvania].[|[8]] === ===Louis I. Kahn did not find his distinctive architectural style until he was in his fifties. Initially working in a fairly orthodox version of the International Style, a stay at the American Academy in [|Rome] in the early 1950s marked a turning point in Kahn's career. The back-to-the-basics approach he adopted after visiting the ruins of ancient buildings in Italy, Greece and Egypt helped him to develop his own style of architecture influenced by earlier modern movements but not limited by their sometimes dogmatic ideologies. === ===<span style="color: #004bff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In 1961 he received a grant from the [|Graham Foundation] to study [|traffic movement][|[9]][|[10]] in [|Philadelphia] and create a proposal for a [|viaduct] system. He describes this proposal at a lecture given in 1962 at the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado: ===

===<span style="color: #004bff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In the center of town the streets should become buildings. This should be interplayed with a sense of movement which does not tax local streets for non-local traffic. There should be a system of viaducts which encase an area which can reclaim the local streets for their own use, and it should be made so this viaduct has a ground floor of shops and usable area. A model which I did for the Graham Foundation recently, and which I presented to Mr. Entenza, showed the scheme.[|[11]] ===

===<span style="color: #004bff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Kahn's teaching career started at [|Yale] in 1947 and he was eventually named Albert F. Bemis Professor of [|Architecture and Planning] at [|MIT] in 1962 and [|Paul Philippe Cret] [|Professor of Architecture] at the [|University of Pennsylvania] in 1966 and was also a Visiting Lecturer at [|Princeton University] from 1961 to 1967. Kahn was elected a [|Fellow] in the [|American Institute of Architects][|American Academy of Arts and Sciences] in 1968 and awarded the [|AIA Gold Medal], the highest award given by the AIA, in 1971[|[12]] and the Royal Gold Medal by the [|RIBA] in 1972. (AIA) in 1953. He was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964, He was made a member of the [|American Academy of Arts and Sciences] in 1968 and awarded the [|AIA Gold Medal], the highest award given by the AIA, in 1971 and the Royal Gold Medal by the [|RIBA] in 1972. ===